Reflections on my first weekend in Geneva

Being too lazy to plan any travel, I hung out in Geneva for the weekend but had a good time. On Saturday morning, I left my digs early to meet up with a fellow intern, and we took the bus to France and found that they really do have way cheaper groceries…the store was pretty small but it was jam packed with people from Switzerland driving over. I didn't buy anything because I'm supposedly moving today (if I can sort out this girl's meubles business - I accidentally left the curtain out of the bathtub last week and got her bathroom cabinets wet and she wants me to replace them although I don't feel that they're totally ruined..we're supposed to have a chat today as I'm about to move out and she needs to tell me where I'm moving to). After the grocery store where the other intern bought an inordinate amount of groceries, we found that there was a large Saturday market going on and browsed around. The market was kinda like an Asian market with random stalls of clothing, shoes, food, etc, but nothing too crazy. After the market, we went by Caroline's dorm to drop off her food and then took the bus to Carouge where there was yet another outdoor market. Carouge was really cute and is a neighboring suburb that is modelled after Nice, France. Being marketed out, I met up with Paul and Maggie (a PHR'er) for dinner at a somewhat crappy overpriced Chinese restaurant and then Paul, Caroline, and I attended a 'hip hop show' at the Alhambra Theater.

The show ended up being mostly a dance recital for kids between thirteen and twenty with two or three groups headlining. One group made up of two guys was amazing and blended hip-hop, modern, and breakdancing (im sure there were more styles as well) to tunes like the background music for the March of the Penguins. There was also a group called Showtime, which did some show tuney stuff, and some original lockers. The experience overall was very cool and somewhat surreal, as many in the audience were parents and older peeps…plus the younger people didn’t cheer as much and it was pretty quiet. After the show, Paul and I went upstairs to the bar to have some drinks, people watch, and talk. I'm really happy I stayed out (and crashed in his hotel room at the John Knox center, where he had an extra bed) because we ended up having a great conversation about life in a monogamous relationship, the future, sticking it to the man, medicine, politics, and what I was doing (or wanted to do) in Geneva (and me trying to figure out why I really am here…I'm still working on it, even though I know I should have a gut feeling. My gut feeling didn't bring me to Geneva, although I felt that it was a place I should go to at the time I applied). Anyway, talking with Paul helped me think about direction and focus, and I'm hoping to have a more clearly defined vision after this week. He also gave me some good warm fuzzies and I'm happy to be friends (and on the same team as him advocacy/rabblerousing-wise) :)

We also ended up walking along the lake to the dam and staying out until 3 am attempting to find an ATM. Paul had to wake up early to catch a flight back to the US, and he pointed me in the direction of the Pregny Village bus stop. Unfortunately, the bus didn't stop for me and I refused to wait another hour for it, so I just got on a bus to Gare Cornavin (one of the central bus stations here) and decided to go to Mt Saleve, one of the highest points where you can see all of Geneva (and I guess it's in neighboring France, although I didn't realize that until I attempted to buy postcards and the price was in euros). On the way there, I met some English-speaking guys at Gare (Fernando and Nicolas) and chatted with them up to the mountain, they told me about genevaonline.ch (an English speaking online community in Geneva) that organizes trips and allows people to meet - awesome! I wasn't dressed at all for hiking so didn't climb the mountain but took the tram up, wandered around a bit, and then came back down. Paul had suggested taking a boat ride down the Rhone River, which I did and enjoyed the view. I did nap off a few times though because I hadn't gotten too much sleep the night before with Paul and because I felt a little sad that I was by myself and the cruise was filled with couples and families. After the 2.5 hr cruise, I walked down to the Paquis and had dinner at the Bains de Paquis, enjoyed the sun a bit, and then returned home after talking with Chris online. All in all, it was a good weekend and I had a lot of time by myself to think about things. I miss Chris and my friends and family at home a lot but also think it's good for me to get some time away to think about things and also a fresh perspective.

So, that's it for now. My supervisor is away this week at a meeting so I'll have a lot of time to figure out next steps and how I should make the most of my time here. Even though I am a bit lonely at times here, I know that taking a year off of med school was really necessary for me and I'm happy that I'm not subi'g my May away, although I really was jealous of my friends who are earlier this week.

I'll figure out how to post pics later and maybe will even open a flickr acct since I'm sure I'll be taking lots of pics through my travels. Hopefully my parents and Chris will decide to come as well and I'll be able to see more of Europe.